The Blackest Night: Advent of the White
by jhmstd
Summary: Green and yellow. Red and blue. Indigo. Orange. Violet. Black. And now, the White has arrived.
1. Prolouge

Stars shine and die. Planets grow and wither. Species live and fade.

Since the beginning, when the multiverse came into being, the cycle had continued. Life grew and shrank. The strong survived and the weak died. The strongest build empires, civilizations. They grew to understand the universe they inhabited, the forces and counterforces in action every moment of every day of every world. Gravity. Electomagnetism. The species even gained mastery over the atom and its forces. And with each passing moment of each passing day, the strong grew stronger as the weak grew weaker.

And thus the Gaurdians of the Universe, the strongest of the strong, created the Green Lantern Corps to police and monitor the galaxy, to keep the strong from eraticating the weak. Hope, compassion, love; the high orders of the mind guided the Gaurdians to their decision to protect those less than they. Weilding the power of will, of the Green emotional color and the symbiotic life-form Ion, the Gaurdians sought to impose order upon the universe, to stop the seeming chaos of the cycle which, for untold eons, had prevailed.

That was an error.

The Gaurdians didn't understand the spectrum fully. They beilieved, in their arrogant hearts, that they controlled the Universe, could bend it to their considerable will. They were wrong, and their Corps was almost emlimiated, along with themselves.

Red and yellow. Green and blue. Orange. Violet. Indigo. The colors of the emotional color spectrum. There was power in those who weilded the color. Rage and fear. Willpower and Hope. Avarice. Love. Compassion. Harnessed by batteries and power rings, for a time, the Weilders of Light managed to coexist, just as the colors of the rainbow were joined in the sky. Time passed, however; planets grow and wither. Species live and fade. The cycle continues uninterrupted.

Until now. Now, the course of universal history has been changed forever.

Black. Black was not a part of the spectrum. Black was... an abomination. A void. Lack of the light which ruled the universe. It was the Black Hand. The creation of the Black Power Battery from the corpse of the Anti-Monitor. Resurrection. Life from death. It was not supposed to be this way.

And We know it.

We see it.

We are the White. We are the Judges of the Universe. We are displeased.

And by the Supreme, We will fix it.


	2. The Arrival

Bright.

White.

Blinding.

The words circled in the head of Hal Jordan as he opened his eyes and closed them again just as quickly. He didn't know where he was. He didn't know what had happened. He had been on Earth, in Coast City. He had seen his brother and his family. He had been taking a day off from being a Green Lantern, one of the few he had allowed himself over his long career. But now, he was somewhere... bright. White. He slapped his hands to his chest - not civillian clothes, but the uniform of the Lanterns. He felt the weight of the ring on his finger, but it didn't feel quite right - it was somehow... muted in its wieght, in the reaction it gave to his willpower. He opened his eyes again and shut them again, less quickly this time. He was becoming used to the light.

Elegently crafted arches. Sculpture. _'Almost like a church_,' he thought to himself. He opened his eyes, and this time, kept them opened. The room came into focus.

It was white, whiter than Hal had thought was possible. There were several long benches on the floor behind him. He was kneeling in the middle of some sort of dias looking at a sculpture of... his symbol. The parallel lines with a circle in between, the symbol of the Green Lantern Corps. He looked around as he stood up on unsteady legs. The blocky lines of the Red Lanterns. The arrows of the Indigo Tribe. The sunburst of the Star Sapphires. Even Sinestro's spindly symbol. Seven of them. All the colors of the spectrum.

"Hal Jordan," a voice said behind him. Hal spun around again, bringing his ring to bear. He had always been of the 'shoot first' school of thought. He was startled when his ring wouldn't respond.

"Hal Jordan," the voice said agian, and now Hal saw what was speaking, a long, lean, pale creature bathed in white light.

"You who have felt the touch of fear, the fire of rage - you who have weilded the power of the will and the strength of hope - you have been chosen. We are the Judges." The creature brought his hand to bear - a white ring was on one of its fingers. "You have been chosen," it said again, "to be our herald in your universe. You will preserve the balance. You will eliminate the Black."


	3. The Task

As he stopped speaking, a glare of light flashed from the creature's hand and shot towards Hal. He tried to move, tried to dodge the blast, but couldn't move fast enough - the muted, sluggish feeling in his ring had spread from his hand to the rest of his body. His mind was on fire. His body felt frozen. His eyes opened wider, and he saw... everything from his past.

The war with Sinestro. His rebirth. Parallax. The destruction of Coast City. Sinestro's trial and exile. Abin Sur. The day he got the ring.

His father's death.

All the horrors and joys of his past jumped before his eyes. The lean creature spoke again. "You have suffered great loss, Hal Jordan. Your will has been tested beyond the ability of many, including much of your race. Through it, you have lost what makes you the perfect being to bring Our light into the universe - you have lost your hope. Your rage. Your fear. To wield Our light, you must control all the Spectrum." Hal slumped over. He felt drained. His will was gone. He just wanted to sleep.

But the white one wasn't done. He raised his hands - '_Provided it IS a 'he''_, Hal thought to himself - and another white glow started. The sculptures in the room began to glow as well - green and yellow, red and blue, all the colors of the rainbow. The light condensed and began to move toward the center of the room - all but the Green. There was a flash of six colors and then there was nothing but the white light and six rings floating in the air.

"These are your new tools, Hal Jordan," the creature said as the rings placed themselves on Hal's hands. "The White Light takes power from the others, and can do things that you would not be able to imagine. Only through mastering your emotions - these rings - will you be able to use Our light to rid the univerese of the Black."

The rings glowed on Hal's fingers. Pain shot up his arms and engulfed his body.

"The rings are fighting for control, Hal Jordan. You must make them serve _you_."

Voices rang in Hal's head.

_What do you hope for?_

_Be afraid. Use your fear._

_Tear! Destroy! KILL!_

_It's mine! It's ALL mine!_

Over and over, one on top of the other - each fighting to come out on top, to be master of Hal Jordan. He couldn't fight. He was too weak. The rings would take control and rip his body to shreads if... he couldn't...

_Hal._

One voice came out above all the others - deep, confident... it almost sounded like... Hal looked up, saw the white creature. No, he couldn't be...

_Hal. Close your eyes._ He didn't know why, but Hal did. And then he saw who had been speaking.

_Dad?_


	4. The Power

_Dad?_ Hal thought, looking through closed eyes at his... father. But it was impossible. His father was dead, had died in a plane before his very eyes when he was young. He didn't believe what he was seeing, couldn't... but, he had seen a lot of things he couldn't believe. It didn't make them any less real.

Or dangerous.

There was a flash of green. Hal Jordan and his father were standing in a room in Hal's mind. A green room. "Ring," he asked. "Did you do this?" **YES, LANTERN JORDAN. IN ORDER TO PREVENT YOU FROM BEING TORN ASUNDER BY THE WARRING LIGHT. **"What about my father?" His father broke in, a green glow around him.

"I can answer that, son," he said to his confused looking child. "I thought you might need me. Or, rather, _you_ thought you might need me. I can't get any more in depth, though, boy," Martin said, walking to his son. Hal stood, dressed in his street clothes. "Kept the jacket, I see."

"Of... of course, Dad." Martin gave his son a grin.

"Now, listen close, son," the elder Jordan said, looking at the younger. "You've got a job to do. Far as I can figure things, some pretty big things are in the future for you. You just have to do what I _know _you can - you've always been able to control yourself and the things you think and feel. I have no doubt that you can do that here." Hal blinked. With his father here, with him speaking, being fatherly, all the emotion that he had kept inside of him for so many years came rushing to the surface. Tears, the first tears he had felt in several decades, formed in his eyes.

"Dad," he said. "I have a question. When you... went down... you said something. What was it?" Martin Jordan smiled again at his son. He clasped his on the shoulders.

"I told you that I loved you. And not to live in fear." There was a flash of green as Hal embraced his father and suddenly he was aware of the white one, of the raging forces in his body. _enough. Enough. ENOUGH. __**ENOUGH!**_His eyes flew open. Seven colors flew out of his hands, out of the rings. They sparked and smoldered and gradually went out.

_It doesn't matter what I hope for. It doesn't matter if I'm afraid. Rage and greed don't matter. All that matters is doing what __**I**__ need to do. And you all are going to do as I want. Because __**I'm**__ the one in charge, not you. _Multicolored light engulfed his form.

"Congratulations, son," his father said from... _outside_ of Hal's body. "You did as I knew you would. Now you're ready to join us."


	5. The Beginning

Hal looked up, and standing in front of him, shrouded in white light and dressed in the same old, worn, taken care of clothing Hal remembered seeing him in all of his young life. Jeans. The worn bomber jacket. And on his hand, a white ring. Hal was shocked. He had seen his father die. Crash in a jet, in a great ball of fire. Boom. Gone. Did the White Lanterns, these Judges, have power over life and death? How were they any better than the forces of the Black which they had apparently summoned him to stop, if they could resurrect life as they saw fit?

Martin Jordan smiled at his son. "I didn't really die, son. Ni'ma pulled me out right before the stupid thing blew up," the elder Jordan said as he gestured toward the one who had summoned his son.

Hal was breathing hard as he stood. He hadn't realized how much energy and effort it had taken him to quiet the warring light. The colored rings still sparked occasionaly, all save his green ring of Will, which had started to glow gently. "Dad, you've... been alive all this time? Why didn't you tell me?" He ran a hand through his hair. "Why didn't you tell old Mr. Ferris? He died consumed by grief because of what happened to you." Martin shook his head.

"I know. And I guess it's my turn to be consumed by grief for what I made him - and you - go through. But I couldn't meddle, Hal," he said, looking his son in the eye. "I coudn't interfere. I couldn't let the growing evil know where I was." He glanced at his comapnion. "Or, _what_ I was."

"Just what are we, Dad? I guess I'm one too, now." Martin opened his mouth to respond, but the thin one -Ni'ma, Hal corrected himself - interrupted.

"There is an obscure passage in an obscure section of the Book of Oa. It goes thus:

_The Son of the Judge shall come when_

_Darkness fills the Universe with its blackness_

_He shall lead the Light against the Black, seven Shades_

_Will come to his cry_

_In Blackest Night, Love and Compassion's light_

_Fear your Rage forced into bright_

_Covet your Hope with Willpower's might_

_And embrace the Spectrum_

_By the White Judges' Light_

Few know of it, and it is the only thing in the Multiverse that has reference to our Judges. We, in fact, take our Oath from its passage. And you, Hal Jordan of Earth, Sector 2814 M2, are now a Judge. You feed off the Spectrum. Other powers give you yours. You will know other creature's minds, their motivations. You will be able to replicate yourself, support the powers of others, destroy planets, and even see the very fabric of the Multiverse itself." The sculptures across the room began to glow, and colored fire surged across the surface. Ni'ma smiled, if the gesture could be called that by human standards.

"Hal Jordan. Martin Jordan. Join me on the dias." Hal and his father walked to either side of the thin white figure. Ni'ma stepped forward, the two Jordans flanking him.

"Your generals arrive."

The symbols became engulfed in the fire, and figures came out. Atrocitus. Larfleez. Saint Walker. Indigo. John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, and Guy Gardner. Carol Ferris.

Sinestro.

"Greetings, weilders of Light," Ni'ma said, his voice oddly amplified by some force. He stepped forward on the dias, and began to shine a soft white, as Martin Jordan did as well. Hal's green ring pulsated, and surrounded him in the familliar green, now tinged with the other colors of the Spectrum. "I am Ni'ma of Imuyth, one of the White Judges. You stand in my courtroom. You are all here because you lead a color of the Light. My judgement is that you will lead your Corps to war against the Black which is overtaking your universe. You will learn here to trust each other, to use your powers to the good of each other and your goal.

And Hal Jordan will be your leader."


	6. A Brief Interlude

Alright, guys, so, I'm sorry about the long delay in updating this. Just started a new job, and have been getting used to that and school at the same time, so I haven't been able to write as much as I'd like. But, I've wanted to take a second and just have a personal note with you, my readers, who, for whatever reason, like what I'm doing.

I'm currently writing two stories on this site - one here, under the Green Lantern heading, with several original ideas and characters, along with a couple that are pretty old characters that I don't think have been used enough (Martin Jordan, anyone? Anyone?)

I thought I should let you guys know around what time these events are happening in relation to current DC events ('cause we're all a little nerdy here, right?). THIS story happens post-Final Crisis (as I'm sure you could tell by the Blackest Night heading), and I'm pretty proud of the way it's been shaping up so far. The big problem with this one is that, as the series is still in production (headed up by the brilliant Geoff Johns), I'm constantly needing to fine-tune and adjust little details. I have most of this one planned out, it's just a matter of having it make sense.

Now, both this story and my other, The Birth of an Empire, occur in the same alternate universe - this one happens later, so I'll be updating this less, as I'm going to fold some of the events from the other story into this one. I suggest you read that one while you wait for more updates ('cause, y'know... I wrote it, and I like getting hits).

So, I'm going to get back to writing, and I hope you guys enjoy the rest of the story!


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